Radio Recap – Big Development in the Flynn Case

Has the judge in the case of Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, Judge Sullivan, made himself a party to the case, and will the full en banc panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals remove him from the case?

On today’s Jay Sekulow Live, we discussed the latest developments in the Lt. Gen. Flynn case. The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals has now raised serious issues about Judge Sullivan’s partiality.

In an interesting turn of events the full D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals decided that they would hear Judge Sullivan’s appeal of the three-judge panel’s decision which ruled that the district court judge did not have the authority to disregard the Department of Justice’s decision to drop the case against Lt. Gen. Flynn. The panel had also said he was wrong to appoint an outside counsel to argue against the Department of Justice’s position.

The entire court sitting en banc (one had to recuse himself) is going to hear this appeal. It’s coming up on August 11th for oral arguments. Then just yesterday afternoon, the appeals court released two new items that they want argued in the case. These new items are regarding whether Judge Sullivan should be removed from the case.

My dad, Jay Sekulow, gave his analysis of these developments when he said:

So we actually have an order here and this is what’s so interesting about this. There’s an order that’s been entered and the order says that “in addition to the issue set forth in the court’s order filed July 30, 2020, the parties should be prepared to address at oral argument the effect of the judge being disqualified under 28 U.S.C. section 455,” disqualification of justice, judge, or magistrate, which says “Any justice, judge, or magistrate judge of the United States shall disqualify himself in any proceeding in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned.” The Court of Appeals is reasonably questioning this, because what they’re saying is, hey, he’s a party litigant.

ACLJ Senior Counsel Andy Ekonomou agreed, saying:

That’s right. As a matter of fact, if you go down in that code section it says that a judge or magistrate of the United States shall be disqualified if he is a “party to the proceeding.” Well, what do you think Judge Sullivan is but a party to the proceeding? He has petitioned the court to intervene in the action. He didn’t like the decision of the three-judge panel, and now he’s coming back again saying I want the whole court to hear it. So not only is his impartiality reasonably questionable, but now he has become a party to the proceeding and should be out of the case by statute.

The U.S. Code makes it very clear. Judge Sullivan should be removed from the case. He certainly meets the category in the Code.

Today’s full broadcast is complete with much more analysis of the latest developments in the Lt. Gen. Flynn case.

Watch the full broadcast below.